July 9, 2019

The Artist’s Corner is a new weekly feature of the Addiction/Recovery eBulletin. We send our participants forty questions and ask them to choose twenty they would like to answer. It includes a short profile and a link to their website. We hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Addiction/Recovery eBulletin or its staff.

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PROFILE

Leelee Stranger is a Finnish-American Film-maker, Actor and Playwright. Her debut play “REBELLION DOGS” was a semifinalist in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Convention in 2018. She trained as an acrobat at Circus Pilots 2004-2005 (Stockholm,Sweden) and as an actor with Jim Parrack and Andrea Dantas at Playhouse West Brooklyn Lab (2015-2017). She played Blanche DuBois in a “Streetcar Named Desire” at College of Marin in California, before relocating to NYC. Credits include “Traveling with Ani” 2016 (lead, co-writer), “Auratus” 2018 (lead, co-writer), “Elf Meets Man- An exploration into modern dating” 2019 (Co-writer, lead, director), and “SLAW” 2019 (Writer, lead, director). Leelee is a founding member, along with Jake Sofaer, of the production company Escape from Apgar House. She lives in Brooklyn but will go anywhere to get that perfect shot.

https://www.facebook.com/escapefromapgar/

https://www.facebook.com/leelee.stranger.3

If you are in New York in November and want to see Ms. Stanger’s latest film: Click Here  https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4292666

Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice and when did you discontinue its use?
A. I liked heroin. First I free-based mexican tar for several years and then got into sniffing china white. I got sober on December 1st, 2013.

Q. Do you believe artists are made or born?
A. I think the creative impulse is something everyone is born with- but artists feel it harder and are beholden to it (personally I get depressed if I don’t have a creative outlet.) So in that sense I think artists are born. But ACTUALIZING your artistry is another matter. That takes work, commitment, discipline- in that way an artist is made.

Q. Who is your favorite celebrity in recovery?
A. Dax Shepard  

Q. Do prefer to living by the ocean, lake, river, mountaintop, or penthouse?
A. Oceans and Seas are nice- but any large body of water will do.

Q. What is your biggest or littlest pet peeve?
A. Tardiness.

Q. How do you measure success?
A. Happiness on a daily. 

Q. If you had an extra million dollars, which charity would you donate it to?
A. One that plants trees and/or combats climate change on a hands-on level.

Q. Who was your biggest influence throughout your life?
A. Artists that went before.

Q. What is your current hobby?
A. Gardening and thriftting (and dishes and folding clothes whenever I’m a houseguest:)

Q. What prominent fe/male figure would you most like to date?
A. Jake Gyllenhaal seems nice. 

Q. If you were giving a dinner party for your 3 favorite authors, Living or dead, who would they be? (you can choose 4 if you think one might be too drunk or stoned to attend.)
A. The three Musketeers: Henry Miller, Anais Nin and Lawrence Durrell

Q. What is your favorite: TV/cable/digital series?
A. FLEABAG is genius and I get some good old-fashioned fun out ot Stranger Things.

Q. What is your favorite: Non-fiction book genre?
A. Auto-and Biographies  

Q. What is your favorite: Band/composer/musical artist?
A. Nina Simone- Queen of all times.

Q. Who is your favorite: Activist?
A. Pussy Riot

Q. What is your favorite: City?
A. New York City

Q. What’s your favorite radio show or Podcast?
A. Armchair Expert by Dax Sheppard

Q. What books are you reading now?
A. “Audio-Vision” by Michel Chion and  “Homo Deus” by Yuval Harari

Q. What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
A. Find people who have what you want and then do what they did.

Q. What is the proudest moment in your life?
A. Getting my 1 year sober chip (tied with opening night of the first play I wrote and first movie I was the lead in).